Monday, July 16, 2007

Dragon in the System by Cindy Spencer Pape--G

It's MONDAY! And that means it's time for the Mini-Review and Interview. My guest today is Cindy Spencer Pape, my third critique partner. She was gracious about answering my nosy questions. And of course, we all know she looooves dragons, so right there we have something in common. With that, we'll just plunge right in.

1) If you could start over with your writing career, what if anything would you change? I’d start earlier! Much earlier.

2) What was the best piece of advice you received regarding the life of a writer? The great author Douglas Adams once wrote “drink lots of coffee and buy a desk that can withstand having your head banged upon it.” Substitute Diet Coke for the coffee and there you go.

3) If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be? Well there are several politicians living and dead that I’d like to meet just for the opportunity to smack them upside the head! Other than that, Marie Curie, perhaps? Jane Austen? Thomas Jefferson? Leonardo DaVinci? Nah, none of them would talk to me anyway.

4) If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be? Dr. Watson. You know he had to be the stabilizing force in that duo.

5) What do you want to be when you grow up? Grow up? Bite your tongue. I have no intention of doing any such thing. Now growing old is a different story. I plan to spend my old age sipping cocktails on the beach and banging out stories on my laptop. Oh yeah, that’s the life.

6) In the next century, what do you hope people will remember you for? Heck, I hope they remember me at all. Hmmm- being remembered for my writing would be cool. As a loving wife and parent? That crazy writer who sat on the beach and wrote all those sexy stories?

Dragon in the System by Cindy Spencer Pape from Cerridwen Press

There was a funny thing that happened on the way to me reading this story. I read a bunch of other dragon stories so I had a pre-conceived notion about how this one would go. Hah! Was I wrong, thank goodness! Cindy very skillfully leads the reader down the uh, steam tunnel without giving away the secret, so I sure won’t spoil all of her hard work, except to say that the fun has barely begun. At least one of the characters already has his own book and I’ve really been lobbying for more.

To be perfectly honest, my entire college experience was part-time as an adult (graduated in my forties!) Most of my time at college was a mad dash from work to class and then another mad dash for home, so I have no frame of reference when it comes to academia. But the story made me wish—just a little— that I had been able to have that experience. Certainly, Cindy uses the refreshing backdrop of a small college town combined with intelligent characters with the complete confidence of experience.

The characters were ordinary men and women caught up in something so unusual that they demonstrated their strength and courage and ingenuity by rising to the occasion. Eric is one hot geek. Yeah, he is and Lori isn’t too bad herself. Keep the fan on high and the ice water close when these two get together.

If you want a hot entertaining read, get yourself a Dragon in the System.

For those who don't know, cedric is the little green dragon who appears in my email signature. (If you never see pictures, he's on the front page of my website, www.cindyspencerpape.com .I think he's a little young having just hatched in the last year, but you can meet Bram, his cousin in October and there is a movement afoot to get Drake, from DITS his own story...

Want to know more?

Anny Cook

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Anny Cook's Webpage

Reader, author, wife, parent and grandmother, Anny Cook fits it all in her busy life. Now officially retired, she started writing in 2005 when she found herself at loose ends after yet another move. To date she has twenty-three published titles ranging from a Quickie, Everything Lovers Can Know to a plus novel, Shadows on Stone. She has three series—Mystic Valley, Flowers of Camelot, and Tuatha Treasures.